discus federal issues related to US politics or affecting the entire nation.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

instaPoll: Do you believe that the United States government should hold an American citizen - arrested on American soil - as an enemy combatant in order to gather intelligence to prevent a possible future attack?

Congressman Randy Forbes

Last Friday, after the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings was taken into custody, federal officials exercised what is known as the "public safety exception" to delay reading Dzhokhar Tsarnaev his Miranda warnings. In such cases, officials are permitted to ask questions necessary to secure their own safety or the safety of the public.

Some have argued that this should be taken a step further, and that Tsarnaev should be deemed an enemy combatant (a member of a declared enemy of state or a terror group during a time of war) to determine if he was involved with, or knew of, other terrorist attacks. As the suspect is a naturalized citizen, others argued that it would be unconstitutional to treat him as an enemy combatant.

This week, the White House indicated that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will neither be classified as an enemy combatant nor tried before a military commission. Instead, he was formally charged with using a weapon of mass destruction to cause the "malicious destruction of property resulting in death" and will be tried in criminal court. Under this charge, Tsarnaev could face the death penalty.

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